makevsmakesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“make” and “makes” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,148
“make” frequency rank
#49,124
“makes” frequency rank
64272
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature make makes
Definition Hacer. Hace, Presente del modo indicativo para la tercera persona del singular del verbo make.

Where the eye mixes make and makes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. make runs 4 letters (CVCV) against makes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
make
5 ch
makes

Look-alike desk: make vs makes

A purely visual mix-up. make (/meɪk/) and makes (/meɪks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “make” sits inside “makes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

make is recorded at frequency rank #15,148, classified as averb, pronounced /meɪk/. makes is at rank #49,124, tagged as averb, pronounced /meɪks/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 64272, this pair ranks #46,092 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of make vs makes

Shared letters: aekm. Private to "make": -. Private to "makes": s.

"make" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "makes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • make ← amke · maek · makke · mkae · mmake
  • makes ← amkes · maeks · makess · makkes · makse · mkaes · mmakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "make" and "makes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/meɪk/ versus /meɪks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "make" or "makes"?
"make" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,148 in our Spanish list, against #49,124 for "makes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "make" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "makes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,092 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "make" and "makes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "makes vs Marks". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #46,092 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list